Warning this will be a lengthy blog post, please take as many breaks needed to fully read this.
Not It
For me, this was a huge deal. Usually Treehouse of Horror episodes does three short stories within an episode. This is the first time they do a bonus stand alone Treehouse of Horror episode. Honestly, I already was hyped to see this one. I previously seen both IT movies. I was rather curious to see how they would go about parodying one of Stephen King's stories.
If you recall way back in Treehouse of Horror 5, one of the short stories was called The Shinning. Which was a parody of Stephen King's The Shining. To most Simpsons fans, that's often considered the best Treehouse of Horror story ever done. So obviously, this one had huge clown shoes to fill. I am also trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible.
Right off the bat, I would say story wise it's one of my favorite Treehouse of Horror stories yet. I would even say it's decent enough to compare to the classic older Treehouse of Horror episodes. You know the ones everybody still talking about. I strongly felt in every possible way, they really knocked it out the park.
Krusty is Krusto in this parody story, I felt he done a great job parodying Pennywise. Obviously, this is currently the longest Treehouse of Horror story. Considering both movies were a few hours long separately. I don't think we miss anything critical. I loved how they made this parody their own. This easily could've went wrong like some later Treehouse of Horror episodes.
I also can say this was better than IT mini series. I didn't find it to be rushed out in comparison. It actually held up very well in Part 2. Don't worry anything bad that happens is already done in a way. It won't be as scarring as something like Hellraiser, Final Destination, The Thing (1982) or Terrifier. Not It was a decent parody that was faithful enough to the source material.
At the same time, The Simpsons made such scary movies into a great fun time you can have with your families. I will say the jokes more often hit than miss like a lot of newer Halloween episodes. I think Mr. King should be proud of their work. They picked the right moments to turn into their own version of the story.
I will be honest, compared to a lot of more recent parody movies I seen. This was more entertaining than those by a long shot. Not It is easily one of my favorite Treehouse of Horror stories ever told. You can bet I would rewatch that easily. I don't even have criticism since they did such a great job. I don't even think it needed to be longer or short, it just nailed the perfect length.
If that's not crazy enough for you. Then how about this unexpected movie comparison. As many of you know The Hobbit is a part of The Lord of the Rings franchise. The older movie did a similar route to Not It just not as comical. Years later, three movies of The Hobbit came out. Combined that's virtually close to 2/4 of your week just to fully watch em back to back.
Personally, I felt the older movie was a more fair length. Sure it's missing parts of the story. But who wants to put that much time into watching movies? Clearly both IT movies are notably shorter than The Hobbit movies. But my point is you don't felt cheated with a good length. Thus, it is actually easier to rewatch when you want to.
Not It is also a great parody title choice for this. In all honestly, everyone who worked on this particular Simpsons episode. Please give yourself a huge pat to the back in a good way. You can tell I'm very impressed by it. I hope it does well enough for them to do another Treehouse of Horror episode of that style in the near future.
Treehouse of Horror 33
I never thought I was going to say this. Easily one of my favorite Treehouse of Horror episodes ever. They had a writer for each story which they haven't done in a long time. Honestly, I'm deeply mind blown it was that good. The Pookadook is a parody of the movie The Babadook. Surprisingly, they nailed everything so perfectly.
To clarify, the last time they done each story by a different writer was around twenty years ago. So if you're wondering why a lot of them seems rushed, uninspired or just poorly executed. You know why now, Treehouse of Horror 33 is one of the most solid recent entries to date. You really couldn't go wrong with either Halloween Simpsons episodes this year.
Marge gets possessed then attempts to kill Maggie. I felt this was a good homage to the earlier Treehouse of Horror episodes. I can't even criticize it because even the jokes were notably funny. You felt sorry for Maggie for most of the story. In all honestly, this was better than I originally expected it to be.
Death Tome is a parody of the anime series Death Note. Not too long ago, I reviewed Death Note anime myself. I strongly felt they nailed this incredibly well. I would even say this was easily one of the funniest Treehouse of Horror stories they ever done. The animation style was very on point with the anime they're parodying.
Bart gets to be the character L in this parody, strangely it worked despite things. Steven whose a shinigami a parody of the shinigami Ryuk was a great character too. I won't spoil any of the endings but they're not what you're expecting at all. There's no question, this was my favorite out of the three stories.
Simpsonsworld is a parody of the show Westworld. If you are a huge Simpsons fans, you're going to love all the references. I am not kidding, it's so filled with references of older Simpsons episodes. I liked a handful of the robots based on The Simpsons family went rogue. I loved they were surrounded by an army of robot Ralphs.
Yeah Ralph, one of the dumbest yet lovable characters on the show. It kinda reminded me of another similar concept story with Homer clones. As a Simpsons fan, this story was more interesting than expected. People indirectly got themselves harm up to a point. You knew they weren't the actual Simpsons family.
At the same time, you felt sorry for the pain they felt realizing they aren't real. Now knowing this, they simply wanna live their existence. Although, I previously stated to not directly spoil any endings. I really gotta mention the two most surprising jokes in the entire episode. Very late into Simpsonsworld, we learned there's more than one cartoon show domes.
I was able to quickly memorize all the other cartoon show domes. We have Futurama, Bob's Burgers, Big Mouth, South Park, SpongeBob, Family Guy and Rick & Morty. Most of these sure but I was deeply surprised they also done Big Mouth dome too. The episode ends with another animation change. One of the aliens you love gets freaked out but this entire session was awesome looking.
Futurama getting a third run on Hulu next year, Family Guy still on their third run. Most of these are still going on their first runs. Stuff like Rick & Morty, Family Guy, South Park and Big Mouth are pretty mess up shows. Of course, I love this easter egg joke reference to those shows. Honestly, I would've requested for American Dad dome but chances are it's already included in Family Guy dome.
Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show are within the same universe. The Simpsons and Futurama are also confirmed to be within the same universe too. SpongeBob does has a few short lived spin off shows. Big Mouth also gotten a spin off show called Human Resources which is in the same universe. You can tell I watch a lot of adult sitcom shows lol.
Let's be honest, any of those shows could revisit the very joke in their own way. Rick & Morty's take would probably be the most confusing yet craziest by far. SpongeBob's take would make the least sense due to how broken the characters are. Honestly, I loved the concept they made domes to recreate some of our favorite shows.
I felt this particular Treehouse of Horror episode held up amazingly well right off the bat. I actually found it to be quite refreshing compared to the last couple of episodes excluding Not It. All three stories was told very well that was perfect for their length. I would say The Pookadook comes off as being the scariest story.
If they would've saved it rather than doing it first. I felt the episode wouldn't have done nearly as well. I am deeply impressed with this Treehouse of Horror episode. Death Tome was one of the finest parodies on Death Note I ever seen. The jokes not only fits in perfectly but also felt like a good mixture with The Simpsons.
Honestly, among the more recent Treehouse of Horror episodes as well as Treehouse of Horror 30s episodes. This is among the best of those in both categories. Simpsonsworld quickly got interesting, it didn't slow down with the craziness. The Pookdook likely impressed people who were huge fans of The Babadook.
Conclusion
I really didn't expect both Halloween Simpsons episodes to be this damn good. I really can't criticize either Halloween episode. Both of them help pushed the bar among more recent Treehouse of Horror episodes. Honestly, I am deeply blown away on the work done to both of these. It's been a while since Treehouse of Horror episodes been this damn good.
Not It was easily one of the finest horror movie parodies they ever done. All three stories parodying something else. Very luckily nailed them all perfectly with the ratio in every possible way. It's even a hard debate which Halloween episode was slightly better. On one hand, Not It was one long story that's done amazing well.
In vice versa, we had three stories done just as well. Which makes trying to pick the better Halloween Simpsons episode more difficult. After much needed consideration, I would say Treehouse of Horror 33. Yes Not It was a great parody of It. I just felt the way they parodied those stuff was closer to perfection.
For example, a rule in Death Tome is you can't kill another person the same way. One of my favorite scenes is when Light does writes a lot of names down killing a lot of people with a great song. They recreated it with Lisa but added in more creativity to make it further stand out. I also can say the same for The Pookadook for Maggie having to defend herself against her mom.
Not to mention, Simpsonsworld is a huge blast of nostalgia. A lot of classic, rememberable moments on the show. We get to quickly relive all those moments. Now that's something truly impressive. Obviously, it's very easy to screw such an concept up. But somehow they actually pulled it off incredibly well.
By the way, there's one last Bonus Halloween Blog entry coming. Right now it's a waiting game but I should get it finish before kids starts coming around for candy.
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